Last week I was on my way to Portland, and settled on a talk radio station where the dominating theme is liberal politics. At one point, someone was ranting against the usual things, like “corporate” interests and the death of mother earth. Amongst all that, she said something that interested me. She said that people need to wake up and smell the risk of theocracy.
Category: Life
The Christian Liturgy: A Frame for Fine Art
I wrote a little piece for our church newsletter that bears repeating. It helps to explain why our churches use the historic liturgy, instead of making stuff up as we go along. The reasoning is borne out, in my opinion, by a certain experiment conducted in the subway of Washington D.C. If we were to move away from the historic liturgy, then we ourselves stand to be the biggest losers.
Do you love Me more than these?
As fun as it may be to portray the good confession from a worldly point of view — and I hope it amused you too — it becomes extremely serious when Jesus asks the question. This is what He was asking Simon Peter upon the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. “Do you love Me more than [you love] these?”
Happy Birthday!
Ask any of my relatives, and they’ll tell you that my sending of birthday wishes usually begins after the event itself. I was a little busy yesterday, and I didn’t make time to mark the birthday of The Plucked Chicken. It all began on April Fool’s Day, 2006. At the time, I wondered if it would last to the next day, or become another short-lived, bad joke. The jury is still out on the joke thing, but at least we know the chicken survived a whole year. Maybe it even sprouted a feather or two.
As I write, not counting this entry, there have been exactly 100 entries posted. Wow. If that had been a goal, I wouldn’t have made it. Even more interesting for me to see is that we’ve had 77 comments published, and 111 comments filed. That’s right, only 111. I was a little concerned at first about dealing with comment spam, but it seems to have abated. The anti-spam facilities of Serendipity have helped greatly.
You, the Readers
Like Pastor Abrahamson at The Abrahamsons, I find it interesting to see where the readers are. I’ve been surprised to find how many people actually view The Plucked Chicken, for starters. Lately I’ve also noticed a spike in traffic on Thursdays. What’s happening on Thursdays? I don’t know. But there are about twice as many visits Thursdays as there are Wednesdays.
Here are the approximate places where some of our readers access The Plucked Chicken. If you recognize this as your home town, or at least where your ISP is located, feel free to send me an email and let me know who you are. You can use jmjac at gorge dot net. Just fix the address first. The following visitors were all from yesterday. I can guess who some of you are, but not all. And don’t worry about me publishing your names. Unless you tell me it’s OK with you, I won’t do it. You could give me an alias, though. 🙂
In Minnesota:
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Minneapolis
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Mankato
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Madison Lake
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Bagley
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Kasota
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Lismore
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Trail
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Winger
In Washington:
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Everett
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Snohomish
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Klickitat
In Oregon:
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Hood River
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Portland
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North Plains
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Beaverton
In Arizona:
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Phoenix
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Prescott
And more… But I’ll mention the others another time.
May God bless your observance of this Ash Wednesday
One might wonder why Christians still observe the season of Lent, with its various traditions and rites in this age of casual informality and frequent irreverence. Lutherans have provided an answer to this question in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession article XV, 38-39. This answer also explains why Lutherans have continued using the ancient liturgy. Though such things are not strictly required by God’s Word, notice the strife that innovations of worship and seasonal observances bring to the Church! Likewise, note the great teaching value of such traditions for instructing worshippers in the faith!
(The “opponents” mentioned here are the servants of the Roman pope who were accusing Lutherans in 1530 of forsaking the Christian faith.)
Furthermore, we gladly keep the ancient traditions set up in the church because they are useful and promote tranquility, and we interpret them in the best possible way, by excluding the opinion that they justify. But our enemies falsely charge that we abolish good ordinances and church discipline. We can claim that the public liturgy in the church is more dignified among us than among the opponents. If anyone would look at it in the right way, we keep the ancient canons better than the opponents.
May the readers of this blog all have the opportunity to hear the salutary preaching of our Lord’s cross this season, whether by sermon or by liturgy, to your great blessing!
New Edition of “Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions” Is Shipping
See my post on the church newsletter blog explaining this, and then place your order. It’s a good price on a timeless classic.
This volume includes a schedule for reading it through in a year. Maybe we should set up an online discussion group for doing this reading together. Sometimes we need a bit of extra motivation to stick to a schedule like that.
Should Have Read This in Seminary
I finally finished a little book that’s already been more influential upon me and my work than any other non-theological book, and even many theological books. Upon a first look at the cover and name, it may appear to be of the “self-help” variety, a genre which I have not taken seriously for many years. Many self-help books have religious overtones, and even teach a kind of self worship. I despise that kind of thing as the dangerous drivel it is. But this one is different. I wouldn’t even call it a self-help book.
The title is Getting Things Done. It’s a fairly popular book by a “personal productivity guru” named David Allen. I found it while searching the Internet for better ways to use the functionality of the DateBk6 program on my PDA. (That’s “Palm Pilot” for the acronymically challenged.)
After reading this book and implementing its techniques in at least part of my life, I’m convinced that it should be a textbook for a third semester class at our seminary. That’s the first semester of the second year. Why then? Because any earlier, and the students would not appreciate the difference it makes, and probably wouldn’t take it seriously. Any later, and the students would lose too much of the increased potential for learning at seminary once they start using these techniques.
Testing with the Kids
This is a recent photo of the kids, in some kind of performing art on the living room floor. It looks like the girls prepared Isaac with some of their kid makeup.
Here’s Isaac helping me tonight with a little renovation. For those who have seen our house, it’s the doorway from the dining room into the hallway toward the stairs and bathroom. The door frame is gone, and a good part of the wall is now gone as well. Some day, most of the wall will be replaced with some nice decorative louvres. (We just saw the new Pink Panther movie. Can you imagine Steve Martin’s pronunciation of that last word?)
An Advent Meditation
In the midst of earthly life
Snares of death surround us;
Who shall help us in the strife
Lest the Foe confound us?
Thou only, Lord, Thou only!
We mourn that we have greatly erred,
That our sins Thy wrath have stirred.
Holy and righteous God!
Holy and mighty God!
Holy and all merciful Savior!
Eternal Lord God!
Save us lest we perish
In the bitter pangs of death.
Have mercy, O Lord!
In the midst of death’s dark vale
Powers of hell o’ertake us.
Who will help when they assail,
Who secure will make us?
Thou only, Lord, Thou only!
Thy heart is moved with tenderness,
Pities us in our distress.
Holy and righteous God!
Holy and mighty God!
Holy and all merciful Savior!
Eternal Lord God!
Save us from the terror
Of the fiery pit of hell.
Have mercy, O Lord!
In the midst of utter woe
When our sins oppress us,
Where shall we for refuge go,
Where for grace to bless us?
To Thee, Lord Jesus, only!
Thy precious blood was shed to win
Full atonement for our sin.
Holy and righteous God!
Holy and mighty God!
Holy and all merciful Savior!
Eternal Lord God!
Lord, preserve and keep us
In the peace that faith can give.
Have mercy, O Lord!
Martin Luther, composite translation from Cyberhymnal